The Group has confirmed that Matchtech will now incorporate the engineering division of Networkers, while Cappo will continue to provide oil & gas recruitment services in international markets, but will be associated with Matchtech.

It stated that Networkers will become the Group’s lead technology recruitment specialist and IT brand Connectus will be absorbed into Networkers.

Provanis will continue to operate in the Oracle market sector and retain its name, but it will become part of Networkers.

The Group say research conducted by the company amongst its employees, candidates, and current and potential clients showed the Matchtech name shared by the Group brand (Matchtech Group plc) and the operating engineering brand (Matchtech) could be a source of confusion.

Brian Wilkinson, Group chief executive, said the Matchtech Group plc brand is traditionally associated with engineering, but, as post-Networkers acquisition, 40% of its business comes from IT and telecommunications, the group name needed to be changed to better reflect the nature of the business as it is today.

The Group stated it is for this reason the name of the Group has changed to Gattaca and the structure has been simplified.

Wilkinson said the Group chose the name Gattaca as it was looking for something that really captured the spirit of the Group and the name represented the genetic history of the Group and the fact is it is a very family orientated business. He emphasised, "The business was set up by George Materna more than 30 year ago and he’s still on the board. We’re all individuals and each of our businesses work in very specialist departments but we all share the same ancestry.”

At Group level, Gattaca will support the delivery capability of the specialist brands by providing the infrastructure, governance and international reach. Wilkinson said, “We’ve really beefed up a lot of our group support functions to better reflect the demands of a truly international business… that’s going to continue. We are certainly continuing to see growth in our markets and therefore we’ll be investing behind it.”

Of the rebrand, he commented, "This is an important step in the evolution of our company. With Gattaca, we will have a strong, integrated Group identity, capable of offering clients end-to-end recruitment solutions. Importantly, we will retain and grow the established and specialist Matchtech and Networkers brands, who both dominate in their respective engineering and technology fields.

“These sectors are vital to future growth and pose many skill shortages. As industries continue to converge our new structure will put us in a unique position to support our customers across a range of emerging niche skills, converging markets and expanding geographies.

"What this rebrand has allowed us to do is allowed us to get the Matchtech brand out into all the international locations that Networkers had a presence in and Matchtech didn’t. It’s not just about Networkers and building a bigger technology brand here in the UK it’s also about rolling out the power and strength of the Matchtech brand in engineering around the world and that’s probably one of the biggest and most exciting opportunities that we’ve got."

Assuming the necessary shareholder approvals are obtained, it is expected that the Matchtech Group plc name change will become effective in September 2016 and that trading in the group’s shares will be conducted under the new name of Gattaca plc. The new ticker will be GATC.L.

Wilkinson said that in line with the branding restructure, the Networkers integration is nearly complete and is due to finish at the end of the financial year. He added, “I’ve been associated with a lot of M&A over the years and this has been the best integration I’ve ever been associated with.”

Wilkinson confirmed that the bid to refocus the Networkers business on niche IT sectors is an ongoing process, but that the Group is very clear now about which markets it wants Networkers to focus on and build its teams around.

On the Group’s acquisition strategy going forward, Wilkinson stated, “We’re We’re always open to look at potential acquisition opportunities, in particular bolt-ons. He stated the Group is not in the market for a major acquisition at presenr and has successfully dealt with the debt it incurred to carry out the takeover of Networkers. He added, however, “I would expect that in the next 12-24 months we’re gonna be looking at the market again and deciding how best to grow our business which will always be a mixture of organic growth and acquisition opportunity.”